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Tyngsboro landlord ordered to clean up sewage backup

By Samantha Allen , sallen@lowellsun.com

Updated:
11/12/2013 12:19:03 PM EST

Ryan Hut talks about the raw-sewage backup that he and other tenants of Pine Knoll Apartments in Tyngsboro complained to the town about. The landlord is now working under orders from the town to clean the site. SUN/ David H. Brow

Ryan Hut, a Cambodian immigrant who works in the area, said he, his wife and their three young children moved to the Pine Knoll Apartments at 400 Dunstable Road two years ago. Though they lived there happily, things started to change when the previous owner sold the building at the start of this year.

"This never happened before," Hut, 50, said inside his apartment, as he helped his wife unpack boxes to move back into Pine Knoll late last month. Things got so bad a few weeks before then, the family had to move out temporarily.

The building's new landlord, Yupeng "Jim" Ji, previously rented apartments in Framingham but took over the Pine Knoll building in January. Hut's neighbor, Bill O'Neill -- a Tyngsboro native and bartender at the American Legion Post 247 -- said all of the lower apartments on their first floor became flooded with raw sewage in their bathrooms in July. Hut had concerns at that time for the safety of his children, including his newborn baby.

Hut and other tenants said they weren't sure why these disgusting sewage issues were happening. Then, on Oct. 28, a neighbor's 9-year-old daughter caught the landlord in what they called a disturbing act on camera: she saw him illegally emptying the building's septic tank, on his own, with a shovel.

The girl's mother, Kristin Craddock, who lives across the hall from Hut, said she received a frantic call from her daughter that Monday describing the scene.

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The child was getting off the school bus when she allegedly spotted Ji in the back of the building digging something out of the ground.

"She saw him, like, scooping it out," Craddock said with disgust in her voice, as she pulled footage up on her iPhone.

Ji doesn't have the best track record with his tenants. The MetroWest Daily News reported he signed dozens of Framingham State University students into his building there earlier this year, only to send eviction notices a few weeks later in September when his company, Salem Maynard Trust, sold the building to the college to demolish the space for a campus parking lot.

Pine Knoll Apartments in Tyngsboro is undergoing a sewage cleanup under orders from the town. SUN/ David H. Brow

University administrators reported they were unaware so many students rented in that location from the company when they signed the agreement with Ji and three other owners named in the trust. MetroWest reported the university subsequently offered $1,000 to each of the affected students who had to be out of their apartments in a month's time.

Some of the Tyngsboro tenants in the more than 20-unit complex on Dunstable Road said they were aware of this story after Ji took over Pine Knoll, but they said they figured things would work out. But that was before sewage starting backing up and flooding their living space.

Craddock said her daughter -- of her own volition -- grabbed a camera and the family dog that Monday, Oct. 28. The girl pretended to walk the family pet out back while she filmed the landlord in the act. The video shows Ji in a white suit, dipping his shovel into the ground and emptying contents into a brown cardboard box on the ground.

"It's so gross," Craddock said.

She called the Tyngsboro Board of Health to report the incident and police were notified, too. O'Neill said neighbors found several cardboard boxes filled with waste scattered throughout the backyard's wooded area, where some boxes remained when a reporter stopped by a few days later. Health Agent Kerri Oun said in late October Ji faced fines upwards of $500 a day for his illegal pumping of the tank if he didn't work with officials to clean up the mess.

Ji had also reportedly emptied the waste he was digging out into the tenants' communal trash-disposal unit in the parking lot, rendering it unusable, according to reports from the Tyngsboro Police Department. A secondary container was brought in for residents on Oct. 30, while the property management team placed a large sign on the soiled site that read "DO NOT USE THIS DUMPSTER."

Police Chief Richard Howe said in the days following the reported incident, police began reviewing whether criminal charges could be brought against Ji. In the last week, though, the landlord has worked with authorities and conservation consultants to resolve the issue, according to Oun, so he won't face fines beyond reimbursing the town for its time. Howe said last Wednesday the investigation into the matter is closed.

When reached for comment, Ji said he was "too busy" to be interviewed but stayed on the phone long enough to answer a few questions. He said he blamed the residents for the sewage problems.

"We tried to obey the order from (Town) Hall because, you know, all these tenants threw stuff into the toilet and their toilets," he said. "They blocked the pipes and we got into trouble."

For now, the problem is seemingly behind the residents. Hut said he can't believe what he and his loved ones went through in October. He's not sure what the future holds.

"He just doesn't care about the people," Hut said of his landlord.

O'Neill, 55, said the only positive to come from all of this is that he's grown closer to his neighbors in airing their grievances. He's hoping to move out of the building in the next few months, but has to find a building that will allow cats first.

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